Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from 1750 – 1751; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 20.

Muster roll for the ship, the King David, sailing from St Christophers, on St Kitts in the Caribbean 1749.
The King David sailed for the Bight of Benin, Africa, with instructions to buy 350 slaves. The actual number bought there and sold at St Kitts is not known. From the list, it seems that 20 of the crew died and several deserted before the ship reached St Kitts.

The muster roll is a list of all crew signed on for all or part of a voyage, which was used to calculate the money each man should pay to the Sailors’ Hospital Fund (insurance).

The Society of Merchant Venturers is a Bristol-based organisation, which was formed in 1552 as an elite body of merchants involved in overseas trade. The Society still exists today.

Date: 1749

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers